A love-struck U.S. Marine and his princess bride want an immigration judge to write the fairy-tale ending to their forbidden romance.

Pfc. Lance Johnson, 25, and newlywed wife Meriam Khalifa, 19, are set to appear in a San Diego courtroom on Monday, seeking a hearing date that could eventually allow Khalifa to gain asylum and prevent her deportation to Bahrain.

“The bottom line is that she’s married to a U.S. citizen” and she should be allowed to stay, the couple’s lawyer, Jan Bejar, told The Post yesterday.

The couple now lives in Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego. It’s a world away from a shopping mall in the Bahraini capital city of Manama, where they met in January 1999. Johnson was taken by Meriam’s beauty and command of English – with a “Spice Girl” kind of British accent, he says.

Khalifa holds the title “sheika” as the daughter of Sheik Abdullah Khalifa – the cousin of Emir Hamad bin Isa Khalifa, Bahrain’s royal head of state.

The issue is about love, not politics, Johnson said.

“I love her. She loves me, and we want to make a life together,” he said. “She’s an adult. She left at 18. She should be able to make her own decisions. She should not have to ask her family.”

Late last year, with Johnson’s tour in Bahrain coming to an end and Meriam’s parents forbidding her to see him, the lovebirds hatched a plan worthy of a spy novel.

Using his military night-vision goggles, Johnson cased Bahrain’s airport and found that Marines were routinely allowed to pass through security without showing a passport, unlike citizens of Bahrain, who must present their travel documents to guards.

So Meriam dressed in “grunge” clothing – including a New York Yankees baseball cap to hide her long hair – and used forged military identification to slip onto a commercial jet bound for the United States.

The couple’s ruse was discovered in Chicago, but Meriam claimed she faces persecution back in her Muslim homeland, thus touching off the asylum application. A hearing date could come within next six months.

Johnson had been a lance corporal, but was busted to private first class for forging the military identification. He and his royal runaway were married in Las Vegas shortly after arriving on U.S. soil.

But for all the sensational cloak-and-dagger moves pulled by Johnson, he could have brought his princess love to American shores very simply and very legally, an Immigration and Naturalization Service official said yesterday.

Any American citizen can apply for an I-130 visa for their foreign spouse. “It’s a relatively uncomplicated process,” INS spokeswoman Sharon Gavin said.

But bringing the princess bride to America wasn’t that easy, the couple’s lawyer said.

“A U.S. visa gets you into this country, but it doesn’t get you out of another country,” Bejar said. “If that were the case, there would be a lot of people in Cuba and Iran who’d want to come over here.”